Those terribly nice chaps at Titan have sent over a couple of their latest books for us to take a gander at. Both volumes celebrate in their own way gentler, kinder times where neither Guitar Hero or Call of Duty existed, where social networking was something that happened in a pub and Jordan was better known as a country in the Middle East.
First up is a slice of pure seventies and eighties nostalgia for all those young whippersnappers who grew up on a diet of grainy black and white comics depicting heroic British, American (and sometimes German soldiers) taking on dastardly Nazis and their evil Axis allies. The Best of Battle celebrates the British comic that ran from 1975 to 1988 taking on Valiant and Action along the way. Now I always had a preference for Warlord and Victor in the halcyon days of my youth but I do remember the exploits of those hardened criminals, The Rat Pack and Johnny Storm taking on the Luftwaffe over the Russian steppes. The Best of Battle brings together three or four tales of derring-do from their best known characters including D-Day Dawson, Mike Nelson – Codename Eagle, The Bootneck Boy, Major Eazy, Darkie and his Mob and Charley in Charley’s War. For a boy’s comic a lot of these stories were very dark, violent and realistic and they stand up well to the test of time. In fact my only complaint is that there is not enough room to include more, a lot of the stories are left with a cliff-hanging ending.
Second is a slice of Forties smut that got many a British Serviceman through World War II, a ‘strip’ that was read by over 4.5 million readers daily in all the Allied forces newspapers. The Misadventures of Jane brings together the best of ‘The Forces Girlfriend’ as she chases Nazis and keeps up our boy’s morale whilst taking every opportunity to fall almost out of her clothes. Apparently when she finally did completely strip the British Sixth Division was motivated to advance six miles in a single day. This is a slice of nostalgia that reflects a piece of classic comic history that probably did a lot more for morale than a worthy poster!